The process of putting more focus on customers rather than on company and products is called customer centricity. Organizations that put focus on customers seem to be more successful than those only focusing on profit and products. Every customer wants good services from their service providers but those who go deep into what customers feel will do much better than just those who compare the price and make cheap products. Today every company wants to be customer centric because it is not just posture but requirement of core-business.
Customer centricity defines how the focus of the operation should be made towards customer satisfaction. Studies have shown that customer centricity is central to creating a corporate customer service culture that’s devoted to the customer experience (Solomon 2014).
A customer centric behavior of organization can be instrumental in staying a step ahead of competition. It can help grow revenue, improve efficiency and increase performance. It can also lead to sustainable profitability. Some of the key factors that influence customer centricity are listed below:
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1. Lead from the top with customer focused approach 2. Understand your customers
3. Design user experience 4. Empower the frontlines
5. Engage the supporting operations 6. Encourage the right behaviors
7. Use customer feedback to drive real changes to organization.
(Deloitte 2014)
Today, as customers’ needs become more diverse and sophisticated, and as competition becomes fiercer on a global scale, it is important to foster strong relationships with customers and become an entity that is indispensable. (Minolta Konica 2015)
Figure 7 Customer Centricity
“Don´t wait to get a request from an internal participant in the operation. Instead, deliver your service based on customers’ requirements. You have to go further out in the supply chain, realize what the customer needs, and then build your design based on that.” (Rimpilainen Markku 2016)
24 2.2 Wireless Networking
Wireless communications and networking technologies have drastically changed the way we live. An explosion of innovation over the past two decades has resulted in wireless networking capabilities that have fundamentally changed the way we create, share, and use information.
Combined with advances in computing and networking technology, the wireless internet ushered into reality the information age predicted long ago. This information era has undeniable effects on global socioeconomic and cultural conditions. These effects have had a profound impact on the operations of governments and military forces. Timely and reliable access to information is key to the success of virtually all government and military functions. Having effective communications and networking solutions is critical to mission success, and over the coming decades this requirement is expected to become even more important. Consequently, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) will continue developing wireless communications and networking ideas, concepts, and solutions that are more efficient, effective, and affordable. This issue of the Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest highlights some of the recent work by APL researchers in the areas of wireless communications and networking. Although it provides only a small sample of the wide range of work being done at APL, this issue presents articles on key topics such as leveraging commercial wireless technology in affordable military solutions, the evolution of security within the Internet community, satellite communications, high-capacity optical technologies, and network management.
Wireless Network is a communication network composed of wireless enabled network nodes that can carry data from source to destination without going through cable connection.
Telecommunication networks are the biggest users of the wireless networking, as well as investors. Wireless networking has made possible to avoid costly cable installations in home and businesses and provide easy and secure network connection to users. As this provides physical connection between the nodes only physical layer of OSI model is wireless, all other layers are same and applicable for wireless networking too.
In 1901, when Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted radio signal across Atlantic Ocean, wireless network came into being. At that time, this test could replace telegraph and telephone communication lines with radio signal which provides a glimpse into a very exciting future.
Even though radio signal was realized very early, two-way wireless communication was not commercialized for decades. The twist in the story came with the invention of transistor and development of cellular network. At bell laboratory scientist developed mobile communication
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for daily use that was cheap and affordable. This development is still going on and companies around the world are developing communication sets and network from GPRS to 5G.
Wireless local area network has become the most popular tool in maintaining internet communications, especially at home, universities, hotels and workplaces. This is due to cost effectiveness, fast deployment, high data security, reliability, easy installation and maintenance as compared to wired local area network. The Wireless local area network operates in two frequency bands. The IEEE802.11 operates at 2.4GHz ISM band (Industrial, Scientific and Medical band), IEEE802.11a operates at 5GHz band where as IEEE802.11n operates in dual-band of 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Both ISMs are unlicensed dual-bands. Basically, doubling the operations frequency would reduce the coverage distance however manufactures claim that IEEE802.11n could increase the coverage areas. According to Newton's Inverse Square Law, where the received RF signal strength is proportional to the inverse square distance from the source. This paper investigates the coverage performance between IEEE802.11b/g and IEEE802.11n. (Abdul Halim Ali, Mohd Raziff Abd Razak et al. 2015)
Examples of wireless networking are telecommunication networks, wireless local area network, wireless sensors network, satellite communication network, terrestrial microwave networks etc.
Figure 8 Wireless Networking
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Wireless LANs (WLANs) bring incredible productivity and new efficiencies to organizations of all sizes. Advances in WLAN features and capabilities allow organizations to offer the benefits of wireless to their employees without sacrificing security. Properly deployed, WLANs can be as secure as wired networks. This paper discusses the five steps to creating a secure WLAN infrastructure. (Osterhage 2016)
Wireless Networks can be divided into several ways which is summarized in the diagram below.
Figure 9 Classification of Wireless Networks
Table 1 Various WLAN technologies Specification
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The main benefit of having wireless network is freedom to connect to the network from any place within that network. Other advantages include easy installation and cost reductions. There are several benefits of having wireless network which is summarized in the points below.
1. Increased Mobility: It is by far the most important advantage of wireless network. This means that you can sit at any terminal, anywhere in the building and access the server easily which is great advantage for many business organization. For home users installing a Wireless router enables you to move anywhere within the house and still get the internet connection.
2. Enabling BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): This is the new concept developed by organizations after wireless networking became a possibility. It enables workers to bring their own laptops, tablets and smartphones to the office and do all the tasks from their own device by connecting to the corporate wireless network. This simplifies the organizations burden of managing laptops and computers for everyone. This increases the employee’s productivity.
3. Hotspots: People may want internet access while in a public space far away from their home or office networks. So, hotspots provide internet access to people in a public space.
We find these hotspots in coffee shops, commercial buildings, hotels, railway stations, airports, universities, hospitals etc. Almost all places where people gather or travel have some public accessible Wi-Fi. These hotspots are easily expandable for more coverage and scalability.
4. Guest Access: In cable connection, it was very difficult to add guest access to the network but wireless network makes it as simple as adding new username and password.
Now every router vendors make it possible to allow guest access with all security precautions beforehand so administrator don’t have to do any painstaking task to enable guest access.
There are several types of wireless network which can enable communication between two computers inside a room to computers in another continent.
Wireless communication has no physical link between source and destination. Wireless signals are spread by transmitting device in the air and if the receiving device detects the signal using appropriate frequency and antenna then they can communicate with each other. Wireless communication has no physical link between source and destination. Wireless signals are spread
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by the sending device in the air and if the receiving device detects the signal using appropriate frequency and antenna then they can communicate with each other. Radio frequency is an electromagnetic wave that lies between 3KHz and 300GHz which include those frequencies used for communication and radar system. Radio frequencies are generated by antennas that propagate the waves into the air. On these frequencies, various kinds of transmission modes are used to transmit signal and data. Modes are:
1. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum(DSSS)
2. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM) 3. Multiple Input Multiple output(MIMO)
2.3 Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)
Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity. It represents all IEEE 802.11 wireless standards. ALOHAnet developed a UHF wireless packet network to link Hawaiian Islands in 1971. ALOHAnet with ALOHA protocol were later developed to Ethernet and later IEEE 802.11 protocols. In 1985 US allowed the usage of ISM Band for unlicensed usage. These bands were used by microwave companies for their product. Later in 1991, NCR Corporation in co-operation with AT&T invented precursor to 802.11 which was used for cashier system. The first wireless product was named waveLAN which are credited for development of Wi-Fi Technology. Wi-Fi was created by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA). When IEEE released 802.11 protocol in 1997, it had the maximum speed of 2Mbps which was later upgraded to 802.11b with 11mbps speed which was a success. In 1999, Wi-Fi Alliance was formed as a trade association to hold the trademark under which most products are sold. Devices like smart-phone, laptop, game console, digital camera, tablets, printers, security camera etc. all have Wi-Fi capabilities to connect to access point(AP). Wi-Fi compatible devices can connect to internet via WLAN and a Wireless Access Point which are typically located within 100 meters. Wi-Fi most commonly uses 2.4GHz UHF and 5GHz SHF ISM radio bands.
Even though Wi-Fi has reached unpredicted speed and capacity, users are not satisfied and progress in technology is still going on. IEEE and an industry consortium are working on even faster 802.11 versions. These radio-based technologies—IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ad, and Wireless Gigabit (WiGig)—promise to deliver from 1 to 7 Gbps. Wi-Fi chipset vendors—such as Atheros Communications, Broadcom, and Intel—are already working with one or more of the innovative technologies. (Vaughan-Nichols 2010)
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Wi-Fi reflects an impressive evolution in the use of home networking applications. Few years back having a wireless network or Wi-Fi was privilege of few people but now it has become a mainstream networking technology. Most of the smart devices that are manufactured today have the Wi-Fi interface build to connect it to the internet. (Gallo 2016)
Most of the handheld devices like smartphones, portable music players etc. are rapidly expanding and sometimes even replacing laptops as a computing and internet connecting platform of choice. A study done by EDUCAUSE in 2009 found that 51% of the undergraduate own an internet capable handheld and 12% plan to purchase one within next 12 months. A PEW study comparing 2007 and 2009 wireless internet usage found a 73% increase in rate Americans went online with their handheld. Even though the use of non-handheld is also growing, the usage of handheld is accelerating far more. By 2020, it is anticipated that there will be more than 50 billion connected devices globally, with mobile being the primary internet device for most individuals. (Gambler 2011)
2.3.1 Wi-Fi Modes
Wi-Fi modes define whether the access point can communicate directly to the devices or require intermediate access point to communicate with another device on network. 802.11 define two modes of operation for Wi-Fi access points.
2.3.1.1 Ad hoc Mode
It is based on Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS). In IBSS, client can setup connection to other clients without need of access point. This allows us to set-up peer-to-peer network connection between two clients. The main disadvantage of Ad hoc mode is that it is very difficult to secure this network since each device should be authenticated before connecting to the network.
The basic principle of Ad hoc networking is to eliminate an intermediate medium for simple peer to peer communication. These are self-organizing network that may have more than one hop. The main advantages of this network are that it doesn’t require expensive devices to be installed. The complexity may arise when all the devices in ad hoc network are mobile.
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Figure 10 Ad-hoc Mode
2.3.1.2 Infrastructure Mode
Infrastructure mode represents a network mode where a dedicated device will act as an intermediate for communication between other devices in the network. It was designed to cope with the demerits of Ad hoc mode. It has capacity to deal with security and scalability issues. In this mode, each client connects to Access Point (AP) through which they can communicate with each other. There are two types in Infrastructure mode.
Figure 11 Infrastructure Mode
1. Basic Service Set (BSS): In this mode, all clients connect to AP, which in turn allows them to communicate with other clients or LAN based resources. The wireless
network is identified by single SSID; however, each AP requires unique ID called Basic service set Identifier (BSSID), which is the MAC address of the AP’s wireless card. This mode is used for wireless clients that don’t roam, such as PC’s.
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2. Extended Service Set (ESS): In this mode, more than one BSS are connected to allow roaming distance. For convenience, same SSID is used for all the AP’s so that
devices like laptop, PDA and mobile see the same AP. Each AP will have unique BSSID.
2.3.2 Wi-Fi Alliance
Figure 12 Wi-Fi Certified Logo Source: https://www.wi-fi.org/
“Wi-Fi Certified” is an internationally recognized seal of approval for products indicating that they have met the industry agreed standard for interoperability, security and range of application specific protocols. Wi-Fi certified products must undergo rigorous testing by one of the independent authorized test laboratories. When a product successfully passes the testing, the manufacturer or vendor is granted the right to use the Wi-Fi Certified logo. Certification means that a product has been tested in numerous configurations with a diverse sampling of other devices to validate interoperability with other Wi-Fi Certified equipment operating in same frequency band. Certification is available for wide range of consumer, enterprise and operator specific products including smartphones, appliances, computers and peripherals, networking infrastructure and consumer electronics. At retail, the Wi-Fi Certified logo gives consumers confidence that a product will deliver a good user experience. A company must be a member of Wi-Fi alliance to have its products tested for certification and use Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo and associate trademarks. (Wi-Fi Alliance 2017)
2.3.3 Wi-Fi Service Set Identifier (SSID)
While configuring any access point with extended service set (ESS), each AP should be configured with same service set identifier (SSID) to support roaming function. SSID are nothing but name given to the access point. SSID is the unique name shared among all devices on the same wireless network. In public places, SSID is set on the AP and broadcasts to all the wireless devices in range. SSIDs are case sensitive text strings and have a maximum length of 32 characters. SSID is also the minimum requirement for a WLAN to operate.
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Figure 13 List of SSID's
Most manufacturers of APs set some default SSID for their device which can be changed later.
For security reasons, some of the AP’s SSID broadcast may be blocked by Administrator but it is the requirement for any AP to broadcast SSID before any user can connect to that AP.
2.3.4 Wi-Fi Security
When new installation of Wi-Fi is done and settings are left as it is, these devices are not secured at all. We must enable Admin password for routers and encryption for Wi-Fi access points to ward off possible intrusion. If these basic features are not enabled then several problems arise from slow internet access to data loss. Low security features in routers are very severe problem that can later create big problems. So, applying all security measures available in Wi-Fi router as well as from other means is what network administrator should do. If your internet and Wi-Fi is setup by internet service provider (ISP) then they usually enable all security features but if you are responsible for all the setup then you should be very serious on this matter. Some of the security concerns that every Wi-Fi users should know are listed below.
1. Always change the default settings of the router and change Administrator password.
2. Always enable security encryption of Wi-Fi. Never let open network access to your network.
3. Always set the high security encryption in your Wi-Fi router. Encryption like WEP isn’t secured, so use more secured encryption like WPA/WPA2.
4. Offer separate Wi-Fi with minimum access for guest users.
5. Physical security of the Wi-Fi devices is also important. Secure all networking devices in cabinet of lock in case of AP’s.
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6. Having proper door and entrance security as well as configuration authority of Wi-Fi settings is also important.
7. Use VPN for users outside physical network boundary.
2.3.5 Wi-Fi Security Problems and Mitigations
The main problem with wireless network is its simplified access. Anyone with password can access the network easily and anyone might enter network by breaking password. With ethernet one must physically be there in place to access the network but in Wi-Fi anyone within the network can access the network. The hacker who has access to the target network can perform several attacks like DNS spoofing, DDoS attack etc. Below are some of the list of problems and mitigation process:
1. Insufficient Policies
First, every network administrator should develop a policy to use Wi-Fi network.
These policies need to be circulated to the employees and they should use Wi-Fi following these policies.
2. Training
Even though every organization has Wi-Fi nowadays, they rarely hold any training sessions for using Wi-Fi and various concerns associated with it.
3. Rough Access point
It has been seen that even when organization provides Wi-Fi access to its employee they make their own access points that interfere with frequencies Wi-Fi is working on and creates unwanted issues. These unnecessary access points should be removed from the network.
4. Eavesdropping
Even though unauthorized users cannot access the Wi-Fi network but they can monitor the Wi-Fi traffic and alter the data and sequence of data to gain access or to
Even though unauthorized users cannot access the Wi-Fi network but they can monitor the Wi-Fi traffic and alter the data and sequence of data to gain access or to